Getting Poor Routing to West Coast USA

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Getting Poor Routing to West Coast USA

UnderGrowth

3 posts

Wannabe Geek

#243186 29-Nov-2018 21:46

Over the last few weeks I have been noticing I have been getting some poor ping to USA West Coast Servers of Overwatch, where I would normally get a ping in the area of 140 from Auckland, I have been getting 230.

I then noticed that I'm being put through Cloudflare servers in Tokyo when general browsing. so I decided to do a trace and see what's up.

|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| WinMTR statistics |
| Host - % | Sent | Recv | Best | Avrg | Wrst | Last |
|------------------------------------------------|------|------|------|------|------|------|
| 192.168.1.254 - 0 | 23 | 23 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 125-239-200-1-adsl.sparkbb.co.nz - 0 | 23 | 23 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
| mdr-ip24-int.msc.global-gateway.net.nz - 80 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| ae8-10.akbr6.global-gateway.net.nz - 0 | 23 | 23 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
| ae7-2.akbr7.global-gateway.net.nz - 0 | 23 | 23 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
| xe5-0-5.sgbr3.global-gateway.net.nz - 0 | 22 | 22 | 26 | 26 | 28 | 26 |
| ae2-10.sgbr4.global-gateway.net.nz - 0 | 23 | 23 | 26 | 26 | 32 | 26 |
| ae-13.r21.sydnau03.au.bb.gin.ntt.net - 0 | 22 | 22 | 25 | 34 | 57 | 30 |
| ae-11.r31.tokyjp05.jp.bb.gin.ntt.net - 0 | 22 | 22 | 138 | 138 | 139 | 138 |
| ae-3.r01.tokyjp08.jp.bb.gin.ntt.net - 0 | 22 | 22 | 139 | 139 | 141 | 139 |
| ae-2.a00.tokyjp03.jp.bb.gin.ntt.net - 0 | 22 | 22 | 139 | 142 | 185 | 140 |
| 61.213.179.114 - 0 | 22 | 22 | 140 | 140 | 141 | 140 |
| et-0-0-48-br01-eqty2.blizzardonline.net - 0 | 22 | 22 | 211 | 212 | 221 | 211 |
| xe-0-0-0-1-br01-eqla1.as57976.net - 0 | 22 | 22 | 185 | 185 | 186 | 185 |
| be1-pe01-eqla1.as57976.net - 0 | 22 | 22 | 211 | 212 | 218 | 212 |
| lax-eqla1-ia-bons-02.as57976.net - 0 | 22 | 22 | 213 | 213 | 215 | 213 |
| 24.105.30.129 - 0 | 22 | 22 | 213 | 213 | 215 | 213 |
|________________________________________________|______|______|______|______|______|______|
WinMTR v0.92 GPL V2 by Appnor MSP - Fully Managed Hosting & Cloud Provider

As can be seen, rather than being routed via Hawaii to West Coast from Auckland, I am getting sent to Sydney, then to Tokyo, then West Coast. As this has been going on consistently for a few weeks now I decided to check around and I see there was a post from another User not long ago with a similar routing. Seeing as this isn't just isolated to connections to Overwatch servers ( I have been getting significant lag in other games) and also appears to be affecting my general browsing traffic something seems odd. It's been pretty frustrating playing with friends considering I normally get a much lower ping to these servers.

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#2137091 30-Nov-2018 10:28

@talkiet

hio77

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Lizard Networks

#2137094 30-Nov-2018 10:31

I won't comment on the network side of things, Others here are far more experienced there.

I will ask, why you opt to play on US Overwatch servers though, Isn't that somewhat creating a problem for yourself?

I land on a US server only when the AU servers are down, and quite often the play experience is just... not great.

#include <std_disclaimer>

Any comments made are personal opinion and do not reflect directly on the position my current or past employers may have.

SpartanVXL

1319 posts

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#2137102 30-Nov-2018 10:39

hio77:
I won't comment on the network side of things, Others here are far more experienced there.

I will ask, why you opt to play on US Overwatch servers though, Isn't that somewhat creating a problem for yourself?

I land on a US server only when the AU servers are down, and quite often the play experience is just... not great.

Can't comment on network either, but in order to be intentionally placed in US games you have to have majority US players in a party. Even then it's random and of course if Aus servers are down/full then you get auto-placed in US. I'm guessing OP is playing with friends in the US

The lack of definitive server choice option in Blizzard games bar WoW is a bane for "Americas + those little islands down the bottom of the world" region. Heroes of the Storm has the same issue.

UnderGrowth

3 posts

Wannabe Geek

#2137112 30-Nov-2018 11:03

In regards to overwatch yea I play with some American friends, and 140 ping is perfectly playable in casual matches. much higher than this not so much. This is however having an impact in games like FF14 also, where an oceanic option isn't available. Typically I have not had problems as I'm not usually getting routed via Tokyo, however as you can imagine this roundabout routing is making playing anything where an NA server is the only option, quite painful.

I mostly posted this because I feel like this isn't the norm, and only started happening a few weeks ago. After 3 or so years of normal routing, it's very odd and was hoping to possibly get an answer as too why as a customer support query to spark didn't get me anywhere. I also noted a couple other posts with similar routing in complaint of high ping.

michaelmurfy

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#2137119 30-Nov-2018 11:25

In regards to Cloudflare there is already a thread - it is darn annoying as I've got a service that is behind Cloudflare but gives me a Linux shell (a jumphost if you like to other servers). On Spark connections (eg, work) this is terrible and have to tether through my phone instead. I really wish Spark would at-least peer with Cloudflare in Auckland.

For the ping - I agree with others here, playing through the US isn't the best. I get 160ms consistently on my 2degrees broadband connection. Something you could perhaps try is using a service like NordVPN to see if this improves things.

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UnderGrowth

3 posts

Wannabe Geek

#2137122 30-Nov-2018 11:32

michaelmurfy:

In regards to Cloudflare there is already a thread - it is darn annoying as I've got a service that is behind Cloudflare but gives me a Linux shell (a jumphost if you like to other servers). On Spark connections (eg, work) this is terrible and have to tether through my phone instead. I really wish Spark would at-least peer with Cloudflare in Auckland.

For the ping - I agree with others here, playing through the US isn't the best. I get 160ms consistently on my 2degrees broadband connection. Something you could perhaps try is using a service like NordVPN to see if this improves things.

I'll have a look at that VPN, it was something I was going to explore next to maybe force things back to a routing I am used to, so I appreciate the suggestion. I suppose otherwise I will just have to sit tight and hope this isn't a permanent thing.

I appreciate the sentiments regarding playing on NA servers as opposed to AU servers (when those are even an option), though as mentioned previously, it's not normally a problem from my experience.

Really appreciate the reply's so far in my attempt to look for answers, thanks guys.

Thankfully PoE's next league is around the corner and I will be focusing most of my free time into the for a wee while, so only have to worry about a good connection to the AU Gateway.

SpartanVXL

1319 posts

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#2137136 30-Nov-2018 12:09

UnderGrowth:
michaelmurfy:

In regards to Cloudflare there is already a thread - it is darn annoying as I've got a service that is behind Cloudflare but gives me a Linux shell (a jumphost if you like to other servers). On Spark connections (eg, work) this is terrible and have to tether through my phone instead. I really wish Spark would at-least peer with Cloudflare in Auckland.

For the ping - I agree with others here, playing through the US isn't the best. I get 160ms consistently on my 2degrees broadband connection. Something you could perhaps try is using a service like NordVPN to see if this improves things.

I'll have a look at that VPN, it was something I was going to explore next to maybe force things back to a routing I am used to, so I appreciate the suggestion. I suppose otherwise I will just have to sit tight and hope this isn't a permanent thing.

I appreciate the sentiments regarding playing on NA servers as opposed to AU servers (when those are even an option), though as mentioned previously, it's not normally a problem from my experience.

Really appreciate the reply's so far in my attempt to look for answers, thanks guys.

Thankfully PoE's next league is around the corner and I will be focusing most of my free time into the for a wee while, so only have to worry about a good connection to the AU Gateway.

You'll find routes changing not uncommon. You can ask most of the OCE World of Tanks players how they feel about the SG server whenever a fishing boat captain decides to fish up the fibre, tangles his net and make a right mess of the submarine cable.

It does come back eventually but not in a timespan of days. Better to trial your own methods of getting around it if you can.

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grimwulf

121 posts

Master Geek

#2137237 30-Nov-2018 13:42

I too am on Fibre and it's superb - but as has already been mentioned - due to peering - international performance is variable.

I had similar ping issues - mainly wildly fluctuating pings - sometimes 150-170 sometimes 1000+ over the course of maybe 30 seconds. My solution was as already been suggested and I upped my usage of VPN.

It's not magic - and can't defy the laws of physics - so you'll still get 150ms or so to West Coast but choosing the right server will at least give you consistency and a different option when it comes to optimal routing.

Just try out different VPN servers/locations to see what gives you the best performance for whatever you're connecting to.

Sometimes you'll be best off connecting to an NZ server to benefit from the VPN provider's routing tables, other times you might be better off connecting to a VPN host close to where the service is located.

Or, if you're up for more drastic action - hit up some of the guys here and change your ISP - it's horses for courses - some ISP's peer well, others don't.

Jase2985

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#2137241 30-Nov-2018 13:51

i get a ping of 215ms from my spark VDSL connection going via Japan

with the same connection with a VPN end point in LA i get a ping of 135ms

jeeg

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#2137370 30-Nov-2018 16:19

Not sure if this is related, over the past few days I've been having trouble going to the Social tab on Battle.net launcher, always ends up with a 503 error message. Blizz tech support is telling me it's my connection problem but then again I don't have troubles going to anything else.

Muon

2 posts

Wannabe Geek

#2138816 3-Dec-2018 20:40

I also have been having this issue to overwatch (both west and central being routed through sydney) and league servers... Not an issue to aws us west or central.

I also get *.tokyjp03.jp.bb.gin.ntt.net in my traceroute but they resolve to US IPs and the timings also show the packets are not leaving US, so the issue is just the routing via syd.

I use a VPN for $10 US a month which cuts down my ping by 60+ to us west but that often gives me packet loss.

I tried contacting spark support but they gave me the runaround saying I would need to elevate to technical support and pay $150 if they didn't find a fault...

I also got non-spark friends to test their traceroute and they were not via syd (and therefore 60ms faster).

Anyone have ideas on how we can get this fixed?

Jase2985

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#2138825 3-Dec-2018 20:59

@cbrpilot

KiwiTT

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Master Geek

#2141773 8-Dec-2018 21:23

I too am now having problems with my link via the US to my gaming server.

If you look at the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Cross_Cable diagram.

You can clear see that you should be able to route to LA via 5 to 7 to 10. However, I am now being routed from 4 to 1 to 2 to 3 to 6 to 8 to 10, which adds over 70ms to my my usual ping to the US.

Even if I use Nord VPN and connect directly to a VPN server in the USA it still goes via AUS and my ping is the same.

What makes matters worse is my gaming server was based in LA where I got 130ms and that has now moved to Amsterdam where I did get 270ms. But for some reason the routing has changed today and now I route via Australia and my ping has now leaped to 340ms

hio77

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#2141774 8-Dec-2018 21:31

Once again, I won't comment on spark in partular.

But it's typical to take the aus route. Normally latency difference there is which US landing point the provider peers at.

#include <std_disclaimer>

Any comments made are personal opinion and do not reflect directly on the position my current or past employers may have.

KiwiTT

122 posts

Master Geek

#2141776 8-Dec-2018 21:36

hio77: Once again, I won't comment on spark in partular.

But it's typical to take the aus route. Normally latency difference there is which US landing point the provider peers at.

Why as you can clearly see on the Southern Cross Cable diagram that there is a link directly from NZ via Hawaii to LA.

BTW: I am a Spark customer and I believe Spark is a shareholder in the Southern Cross Cable Network, so routing via AUS is bewildering to me to get to LA. You are tromboning across the Tasman for no real reason, as it is not the shortest physical link! This routing looks even worse if you look at this diagram - https://www.southerncrosscables.com/home/network/overviewandmap

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Cross_Cable#Construction_and_ownership

The company is owned by Spark New Zealand (50%), SingTel (40%) and Verizon Business (10%).

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